Wild and Critically Endangered California Condor

[Loi Nguyen]

My wife and I spent a day at BitterCreek National Wildlife Refuge taking down barbed wires to open up the refuge for wildlife movement. There were 18 condors in the flight pen waiting to be released and one outside visiting. Too far for photos, so here is an image taken this past May at Tejon Ranch, 40 miles to the East.

I took the liberty to remove the huge wing tag and a few distracting elements in the background.

1DX, 70-200f2.8 + 1.4TC @ 205mm, 1/1600, f6.3, ISO-800.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

not the most photogenic bird but certainly an important specie to photograph and document given their status. I like the topside view,I wish he had chosen a natural perch

TFS

[Dvir Barkay]

Not the prettiest bird, but very impressive and ancient looking. Very nice portrait, agree with Arash about the perch.

[Marina Scarr]

Very cool pose you captured here, Loi! The far off BG works well. You have plenty of nice feather details.

[Binu John]

Lovely shot! Excellent pose, exposure and composition. TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent composition. Great processing too as I cannot tell where that wing tag was. Since you already removed some stuff I'd also remove the whitish patch near the neck too. Nice colours and details!

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Very nice image Loi. Well processed & great detail in the head and wings. TFS.

[David Salem]

Nice looking shot of this awesome looking creature. The pose is great and your techs look perfect. I dont mind the perch and I like the habitat in the BG. Well done